DST #3: Lapwing - Pied Acrobat
The cache, a camo-taped, preform tube, is hidden in a pile of large rocks just off the trail heading for the Dew Stones. As I was hiding the cache a pair of these unmistakeable but increasingly rare birds was heard calling as they flapped characteristically over a neighbouring field.
To reach the cache location: park @ N 53 53.540 W 1 53.798 near the trailhead or @ N 53 53.450 W 1 53.554 on Banks Lane. Follow the trail up to GZ.
The northern lapwing (Vanellus vanellus), aka peewit or pewit, tuit or tew-it, green plover, or (in Britain and Ireland) just lapwing, is common through temperate Eurasia.
Its name may come from the 'lapping' sound its wings make in flight, from its wavering flight due to its large wings (derived from an Old English word meaning 'to totter'), or from its habit of drawing potential predators away from its nest by trailing a wing as if broken. Most of the other names are onomatopaeic and refer to the bird's characteristic call.
It is highly migratory over most of its extensive range, wintering further south as far as north Africa, northern India, Pakistan, and parts of China. It migrates mainly by day, often in large flocks. Lowland breeders in westernmost areas of Europe are resident.
It is 28–33 cm long with a 67–87 cm and weight of 128–330 g. It has rounded wings and a crest. It is also the shortest-legged of the lapwings. It is mainly black and white, but the back is tinted green. The male has a long crest and a black crown, throat and breast contrasting with an otherwise white face. Females and young birds have shorter crests, and have less strongly marked heads, but plumages are otherwise quite similar.
It is a wader that breeds on cultivated farmland and other short vegetation habitats particularly in lowland areas of northern England, the Borders and eastern Scotland. In the breeding season it prefers spring sown cereals, root crops, permanent unimproved pasture, meadows and fallow fields. They can also be found on wetlands with short vegetation. In winter they form huge flocks on pasture, ploughed fields and mud-flats. The highest known winter concentrations of lapwings are found at the Somerset Levels, the Humber and Ribble estuaries, Breydon Water/Berney Marshes, the Wash and Morecambe Bay (see here and here).
It has a spectacular and unmistakeable songflight with broad wings beating very slowly. The male wobbles, zigzags, rolls and dives acrobatically while calling to advertise his presence to rival males and potential mates. The birds tend to nest in loose groups. In the breeding season, they need a mosaic of habitats, because of different conditions needed for nesting and for chick rearing.
The nest is a scrape in the ground, lined with a variable amount of plant material. The birds need a good all round view from the nest to spot predators, and nest either on bare ground or in short vegetation. They often choose rough or broken ground to aid concealment of the nest. Spring sown crops and rough grazing are ideal. See here for a short video on nest-building.
3-4 cryptically coloured eggs are laid from late March to early June. Both sexes incubate the eggs and chicks hatch 3-4 weeks later. They are covered in down when they hatch, and are able to walk about and feed within hours.
Soon after hatching, the parents will lead them to suitable feeding areas, where the supply of surface invertebrates is good and the vegetation low. They particularly need to have nearby grassland, especially if it contains flood pools and damp patches.
The transfer between the nesting and chick-rearing habitats can be hazardous, and chick survival often depends on how far they have to travel. Only 40% of chicks survive to fledging - predation by foxes is the main threat. The families stay in the chick-rearing habitat until the young are ready to fly at 35-40 days old. Lapwings only rear one brood a year, but may lay up to four replacement clutches if the eggs are lost.
The nest and young are defended noisily and aggressively against all intruders, up to and including horses and cattle (see here and here).
It is a vocal bird in the breeding season, with constant calling as the crazed tumbling display flight is performed by the male (see here). The typical contact call is a loud, shrill 'pee-wit' from which they get their other name of peewit. Displaying males usually make a wheezy 'pee-wit, wit wit, eeze wit' during their display flight, these birds also make squeaking or mewing sounds (listen here).
It feeds mainly on insects, worms, beetles, caterpillars and other small invertebrates on the ground or just below the surface. It often feeds in mixed flocks with golden plovers and black-headed gulls, the latter often robbing the two plovers, but providing a degree of protection against predators. Like the golden plovers, it prefers to feed at night when there is moonlight.
National surveys of England and Wales have shown a population decline between 1987 and 1998, and since 2009 the northern lapwing has had red list conservation status in the United Kingdom. UK population figure are 140,000 pairs (breeding) 650,000 pairs (wintering)
Its numbers have been adversely affected by intensive agricultural techniques. In the lowlands this includes the loss of rough grassland, conversion to arable or improved grassland, loss of mixed farms, and switch from spring- to autumn-sown crops. In the uplands, the losses may have been due to increases in grazing density.
Natural England gives grant aid to help restore lapwing habitat within its Environmental Stewardship Scheme.
'Plover's eggs' were an expensive delicacy in Victorian Europe, mentioned in Evelyn Waugh's Brideshead Revisited, about aristocratic British society in 1920–40.
Mythology: In Egyptian art it was commonly shown with its wings pinioned so that it can not fly. This is 
because early in Egypt's history, it was a symbol of the people of Egypt under the king's rule. On the Scorpion Macehead (c.3000 BC), the lapwing is a symbol of the rule of the Upper Egyptian king over the Lower Egyptian people. The bird was an obvious choice to represent the Lower Egyptian people due to its habit of wintering in the Delta. On a 3rd Dynasty statue of King Djoser, he is shown standing on the Nine Bows (the enemies of Egypt), and also on several lapwings. These lapwings are shown with their wings twisted so that they are helpless and unable to fly.
From the 18th Dynasty onwards, the lapwing was often shown with human arms in the act of giving praise. This image is a rebus of the statement, 'All the people give praise'.
See here for a short video on its decline in Wales, and here for a BBC Springwatch 'tragic' lapwing story. Probably due to its striking appearance, it is a popular subject for artists (see Gallery for some fine examples).